For
those of you in the Municipal Law Section, you’ve been reading emails about H.
497, the open meeting bill which affects executive sessions. In the House
passed bill, going into executive session to receive legal advice had two
preconditions. The Section disagreed and was successful in amending the bill in
committee. After three hearings in the Senate Government Operations Committee,
all five members finally supported the language we’ve been proposing- almost!
The committee agreed last night to add the rewritten exemption (taking out
rendition and using “providing”, I believe; sorry I don’t have the language in
front of me). BUT, they added it as a sub F which makes it subject to the
preliminary finding re: premature disclosure. An independent sub (11) was not
going to win approval.
Chuck
Storrow presented the new language and the compromise placement of that
language. Dan Richardson answered numerous questions and persuaded the committee
by using concrete examples of how this works in the real world. AND, Sen. Peg
Flory, who I reached out to earlier in the day came to the hearing and helped
in convincing at least two committee members.
Now,
none of this would have happened without the contacts Section members made over
the last week. I know of contacts between members of this Section and Senators
Ayer and McAllister. They were the first two to declare support. Sen. French of
Rutland County came around after digesting all the comments. Sen. Pollina of
Washington County reluctantly was a yes. The last holdout was the committee
chair Jeannette White of Windham County. She was a yes last night but I don’t
think her heart’s really in it. So where do we go from here?
The
committee has not voted the bill out yet. Along with our amendment there were
others. A new clean draft will need to be done by legislative counsel;
presented to the committee for a vote and then the bill heads to the floor for
the full Senate to consider.
If
it passes, it has to go back to the House; the House can either concur or
refuse to concur and request a committee of conference. If we can convince the
members of the House Government Operations Committee that this amendment is an
improvement to the house passed bill, we may be able to get concurrence. If
not, the 3 appointees from the house along with 3 from the Senate will write
the final bill.
So,
even though adjournment is scheduled for May 10th, there remains a
lot to be done in that short time.
If
you had a conversation and/or received a responsive email from one of the
members you were in touch with, I’d suggest a follow up thanking that senator
for his or her efforts. As soon as the final version is voted on and posted
I’ll get it out to you; then a thank you would be in order. Again, everyone,
thank you for rallying for this issue. Although it’s not 100% of what you
wanted, I think you’ve improved the bill and helped protect the attorney-client
privilege.
Today
the Senate should be advancing H. 88, the bill concerning parent child contact
when a child is conceived as a result of a sexual assault. The House passed a
very broad bill that raised concerns among members of our Family Law Section. The
Senate Judiciary Committee’s bill is very different. It can be read in today’s
Senate calendar:
http://www.leg.state.vt.us/docs/2014/calendar/sc140430.pdf
(see page 1899).
Finally,
this morning the Senate Judiciary Committee voted out H. 413, the uniform
collateral consequences of conviction bill. The bill was amended in two places,
the most significant being the limitation to non listed crimes. Listed crimes
which number I think 30 or 31 are the most heinous crimes. Adding that
limitation was the only way to get the Chairman’s support. The bill may come up
for full senate action as early as Friday. Although some day next week is more
likely.
The
minor guardianship bill, H. 581, passed the senate with amendments and is now
on the House Notice Calendar for full house concurrence or to go to a committee
of conference. This may happen tomorrow.
I’ll
keep you posted as these matters settle. Thanks for reading.
No comments:
Post a Comment